BGtechs Dynamics Pack VST v1.0-ArCTiC

The BGTech Dynamics Pack is a bundle of five VST plug-ins for the PC comprising noise gate, compressor, limiter, compressor/gate combo and a multi-mode variant of the latter, with the facility to patch in side-chains from one of up to 32 separate key triggers.

Noise Gate and Compressor are quite straightforward in operation, with all the usual controls working as one would expect. Metering is the area where BGTech have tried to add something new, with a scrolling wave display that updates in real time to show the impact of the processing on original input signal. The wave display is indeed quite useful in setting the threshold level, and although a little small to be really precise, it is certainly a worthwhile addition. The ear tends to become accustomed to the sound of compression after a while, so some visual cue is helpful as a reminder should you be inadvertently squashing all the dynamics out of the material.

Noise Gate is really quite simple and lacks some of the configurability of, say, the Auto Gate in Steinberg's VST Dynamics plug-in. It does, however, provide an Inverse setting, attenuating everything above the threshold as opposed to below it, which can produce some wonderfully weird and unpredictable results with drum loops and other transient material.